Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav affirmed the unity of the INDIA bloc on Sunday, saying that the aim of the bloc is to gather regional parties against the Bharatiya Janata Party.
He further added that his own party is working towards that goal. "INDIA alliance is intact. INDIA alliance was formed to gather the regional parties against the BJP. Samajwadi party is still on the path to strengthening the INDIA alliance. It stands with the parties that are fighting against the BJP," Yadav said during a press conference in Lucknow. His remarks come after multiple BJP leaders have claimed that the INDIA bloc has 'no mission' and is 'scattered.' Earlier in the day, Union Home Minister Amit Shah criticised the INDIA bloc, claiming that the alliance has 'completely disintegrated,' citing examples of the alliance not fighting the Delhi assembly polls and Mumbai municipal corporation polls together. Shah talked about the INDIA bloc being a disintegrated party, highlighting the alliance's recent decision to contest certain elections alone. "Today the INDIA alliance has completely disintegrated. Mumbai is going to have elections and Shiv Sena (UBT) and Congress are preparing to contest alone. Just like you gave us a grand victory in Maharashtra, in the same way, BJP government is going to be formed," HM Shah said. On January 9, the Party's spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla said that the alliance lacks a clear mission and is solely driven by personal ambitions and confusion. He also claimed that parties of the INDIA bloc pretend to be united due to their personal ambitions. Speaking to ANI, Poonawalla said, "The INDI alliance has no mission, no vision, only personal ambitions and confusion. Due to these ambitions and confusion, they pretend to be united. In Delhi, the Samajwadi Party, TMC, and others have distanced themselves from Congress." On the same day, a BJP candidate from Delhi's Malviya Nagar assembly constituency called the alliance 'scattered.' "BSP is contesting elections separately, Congress is contesting separately, so we can see that the INDI alliance is already scattered...You should ask Arvind Kejriwal as he was campaigning with Rahul Gandhi. All of that was a show-off," Upadhyay said. (ANI)
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